NEXUS 1

The following introduction and instructions were given to the first participants in the Nexus 1 series of experiments in collective intelligence art on 14.11.16

INTRODUCTION TO NEXUSPlease read this before following the instructions that follow:Nexus:

A means of connection; tie; link

The core or center of a matter or situation

A specialized area of a biological cell membrane involving intercellular communication and adhesion

From the Latin: a binding, joining, fastening,

Some scientists believe that ‘collective intelligence’ is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration, collective efforts, and competition of many individuals.This can be linked with the idea of a ‘global brain’ . As the Internet grows, connections are made, which increasingly tie its users together into a single information processing system that functions as the hypothetical nervous system of the planet. The intelligence of this network is collective or distributed: it is not centralized or localized in any particular individual, organization or computer system. Therefore, no one can command or control it. Rather, it self-organizes or emerges from the dynamic networks of interactions between its components.These ‘Nexus’ experiments are the first stage in the exploration of the application of collective intelligence and the global brain to the process of art.

As you work on the Nexus experiment, consider how you cooperate and work together ‘as one’. If it helps, imagine you are a bee working with thousands of other bees to create the networked cells in a hive (although your artwork is a rectilinear grid, not a hexagonal tessellation as in the hive). You will create a network of lines at right angle to each other, which in turn can be thought of as the walls of cells of various sizes. You might like to think of this as a metaphor for the global brain.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR NEXUS

STAGE 1: Open the Google Drawing sent to you via an email link.​Using only vertical and horizontal black lines that extend from one side of the canvas/page to the other, create a network/grid. Two lines have been added to the canvas to help you make a start. You can change these if you wish. Keep the background ‘transparent’ as this will help you to make your lines vertical and horizontal.

At some point (you will have to decide this as a group using the chat box) you should stop creating these long lines, and consider the cells/boxes that have been created.

STAGE 2: Now, choose a cell – the area inside of any one of the rectangles created by the network of long lines – and create another network of shorter vertical and horizontal lines that only extend to the edges of this cell.